JPS6212557B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a processing method when the power of a voting ticket vending machine in a voting ticket vending aggregation system is cut off or a power outage occurs.

In competitions such as horse racing and bicycle racing, there is a so-called voting business in which horse racing tickets and bicycle tickets are sold to customers and refunds are paid to the holders of winning tickets. The computerized system is called a totalizer system, and it consists of a large number of terminal devices (hereinafter referred to as voting ticket vending machines) that issue tickets and a small number of control devices that control them.

In the totalizator system, it is necessary to accurately count the number of votes on sold tickets, calculate the amount bet on the same number, the total number of votes, and calculate the payout for winning numbers quickly and accurately.

If there is an error in counting or calculating the number of votes during this tabulation process, the refund amount for the winning ticket will be a different value from the correct value, and as a result, the competition operator will be able to give the customer a lower value than the correct value. You will end up paying too much or too little, and your confidence in the system will be severely compromised.

The totalizer system is therefore required to operate as accurately as possible despite various disturbance factors during its operation.

The most serious of these disturbances is power outages.
With today's electronics technology, it is not that difficult to operate a system designed on this premise stably and accurately, as long as the system is stably supplied with a specified voltage and frequency from the power supply. However, if the power supply to the system is suddenly cut off while the system is in operation, the system will not only be unable to continue operating any longer, but also become temporarily unstable in the process. In other words, a phenomenon similar to when a train running at a constant speed suddenly applies its brakes causes the passengers inside to fall over.

If the system stops, the competition cannot continue, so in case of a power outage, the system is sometimes equipped with an uninterruptible power supply, but in many cases such equipment is not available, mainly due to economic reasons. In such cases, it is unavoidable that a power outage occurs and business operations temporarily stop, and when power is restored,
A necessary condition is that operations can be resumed immediately.

In a typical computer system, in the event of a power outage or failure of some equipment, it is easy to recover by restarting the work from the beginning once the power is restored.

However, in cases such as the totalizer system, if a valid voting ticket has already been sold to a customer, it is nearly impossible to retrieve it and start over. Therefore, when a power outage occurs, it is necessary to freeze the state at that moment and restart from exactly that state when power is restored. Such control is fully possible in a closed system consisting only of electronics. In other words, it detects the occurrence of a power outage by an external signal, completely stops all operations at the same time, stores all the current status in non-volatile memory, and resumes operation from that status when power is restored. can be done. However, in a large-scale system such as a totalizer system, there are many voting ticket vending machines in the system, and these machines operate in parallel, so special measures are required for such control.

Data exchange between the voting ticket vending machine and its control device is schematically shown in FIG. 1, and will be explained below. FIG. 1 shows a case where there is no ticket issuing request on the vending machine side. When the control device sends the message ENQ to the vending machine inquiring about whether there is a ticket issuance request, the vending machine returns an "ACK" message meaning "no", and the control device decodes this and then issues the next ticket. Let's move on to servicing the machine.

Figure 1 2 shows the case where there is a request, and the vending machine is
Send a message to ENQ stating that there is a request for ticket issuance and detailed ticket data. The control device decodes this data, examines its contents, and checks the validity of the request. This is processing 1. If it is valid, a ticket issuing command is sent, and upon receiving this, the vending machine returns an ACK and begins ticket issuing operation.

When the control device receives the ACK, it learns that the ticket issue command has been received by the vending machine, and as process 2, updates the file. Once this is completed, service begins for the next machine to be released.

What requires attention here is the time required for the ticket issuing operation. Since the ticket issuing operation is a mechanical operation, it usually takes several hundred milliseconds to about two seconds.

Normally, the file should be updated after waiting for this ticket issuing operation to be completed, but this would slow down the processing speed of the control device, so the file should be updated after confirming that the vending machine has received the data. There is no choice but to adopt a method of updating the number of tickets and then expecting the vending machine to issue the corresponding number of tickets responsibly. As an alternative to this method, there is a method that involves interrupting the control device again or sending data once the vending machine has finished operating, but from the perspective of the control device, this means that the service must be performed again. This inevitably reduces efficiency.

Now, let's consider the timing of a power outage in the series of sequences shown in Figure 1 and 2. _t1 is the time period until the vending machine and the control device conclude a ticket issuance contract, and if a power outage occurs during this period, the control device has not yet updated its file and the vending machine will not issue tickets, so both parties will be unable to issue tickets. There is no contradiction between the two.

Next, if a power outage occurs at timing _t2 , the vending machine will no longer be able to issue tickets, and the file update on the control device side will be completed. Therefore, in the case of a power outage at _t2 , it is necessary to correct this error after power is restored.

Now, with this correction method, if there is a power outage in the middle of _t2 , the ticket will either disappear at all, be printed incompletely, or be printed but remain stuck without coming out of the release hole. It is in one of two states. However, if all these tickets are to be discarded, the amount of these tickets will be deducted from the file, and if a new ticket issuing operation is started, there will be no discrepancy between the contents of the file and the number of tickets issued. Next, there is the issue of what data should be subtracted. Conventionally, operators handled data during power outages by looking at incompletely printed tickets or journals and inferring the data. , or relied on what was in the operator's memory, sending the data to be subtracted to the controller and subtracting it from the file. However, such a method has the drawback of being error-prone.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to provide a voting ticket vending aggregation system in which a plurality of voting ticket vending machines are controlled by one or a plurality of control devices, in which each voting ticket is controlled by the control device. The voting ticket vending machine is provided with a first storage means for storing final vending command data for the vending machine, and the voting ticket vending machine is provided with a second storage means for storing the operating state of the vending machine at the time of power outage, and when the power is restored, This is achieved by reading the contents of the second storage means, automatically sending a request message to the control device to subtract the final ticket issue data, and upon receiving this request message, the control device subtracts the final ticket issue data from the file.

Next, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. Second
The figure shows a block diagram of a voting ticket vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a control device, 2 is a final ticket issuing data memory, 3 is a transmission line, 4 is a voting ticket vending machine, 5 is a memory, 6 is an interface control unit, 7 is a central processing unit (CPU), and 8 is a ticket issuing unit , 9 is a panel display section, 1
0 is a status register, 11 is a nonvolatile memory, 12 is a keyboard, 13 is a journal print section, 14 is a power failure detection section, 15 is a power recovery detection section, and 16 is a power supply section. First, the normal operation sequence for selling voting tickets will be explained.

An operator inputs voting information given by a customer from a keyboard 12. The voting information is stored in the memory 5 inside the vending machine 4 and displayed on the panel display section 9.

After inputting all voting information from one customer, the operator presses a send key (not shown).

The voting information in the memory 5 is transmitted to the control device 1 via the interface control section 6 and the transmission line 3.

When the control device 1 receives the voting information, it performs processing such as checking whether the voting information is suitable for issuing tickets, and counting the amount of votes.

After completing the above-mentioned predetermined processing, the control device 1 sends back a ticket issuing permission signal, total amount, etc. to the vending machine 4.

When the vending machine 4 receives the ticket issuance permission signal, it performs processing such as displaying the total amount, and then instructs the ticket issuing unit 8 to start selling, prints, and prints a journal in the journal printing unit 13 to issue a voting ticket. It turns out.

The above is a description of the operation under normal conditions. Next, the operation when the vending machine 4 experiences a power outage will be explained based on an embodiment of the present invention. The control device includes a memory 2 for storing final ticket issuing command data for each vending machine.
At the time of process 2 in FIG. 1,
Information is recorded in this memory 2.

If there is a power outage during the operation of the vending machine 4, it is detected by the power outage detection unit 14, and the operating state of the vending machine at this moment is read from the operating state register ₁₀ . If subtraction processing is required later, "1" is stored in the nonvolatile memory 11. When the power is restored, the power restoration detection unit 15 detects it,
If the content of the nonvolatile memory 11 is "1", a message requesting subtraction of the final ticket issue data is sent to the control device 1, as shown in the time chart of FIG.

In response to this, the control device subtracts the content stored in the final ticket issue data memory 2 from the file, sends the subtracted data content to the vending machine, and prints it on a journal.

As explained in the embodiments above, according to the processing method of the present invention, the data to be subtracted when the power is restored can be automatically and accurately subtracted from the file, eliminating discrepancies between the file contents and the number of tickets issued, thereby increasing system reliability. This has the effect of improving efficiency and saving labor.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a time chart showing the data transfer sequence between the voting ticket vending machine and the control device, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the voting ticket vending machine according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a time chart related to FIG. 2. In the figure, 1 is a control device, 2 is a final ticket issuing data memory, 3 is a transmission line, 4 is a voting ticket vending machine, 5 is a memory, 6 is an interface control section, 7 is a central processing section, 8 is a ticket issuing section, 9 is a panel display section, 10 is a status register, 11 is a nonvolatile memory, 12 is a keyboard, 13 is a journal print section, 14 is a power failure detection section, 15 is a power recovery detection section, and 16 is a power supply section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a voting ticket vending aggregation system in which a plurality of voting ticket vending machines are controlled by one or more control devices, the control device is provided with the final information for each voting ticket vending machine registered in a tabulation file. A first storage means for storing ticket issuing data is provided, and the voting ticket vending machine includes a second non-volatile storage means for storing an operating state of the vending machine at the time of a power outage;
When the content of the second non-volatile storage means is in an operating state in which the control device has already been requested to add the final ticket issue data to the tally file when the power is restored, a message requesting the control device to subtract the final ticket issue data; A processing method in the event of a power failure, characterized in that: a means for automatically sending out the final ticketing data is subtracted from the totalization file.